HOLY 32 WEEKS

Bomber Hat and fake Uggs for the boy!

So.... time kinda flies and I kinda just realized we are 32 weeks along!

Time to panic perhaps?

I mean we have the space. And we have his little pack and play which is where he will sleep for the first few weeks at least. (It's pretty hooked up with a "napping station" and a music center too!)

But... 32 weeks means we are in the single digits for weeks and since the doctor said his due date could be March 21 OR march 27 - that to me, means he could come as early as March 15 or so - since Katie was a whole 7 days early....

So... I suppose we need to really get our minds prepared for the fact that we will be a foursome VERY soon! I can't wait.

Perhaps I should buy some diapers and get his changing table set up. I've been sick the last week with a nasty cold that has deemed me useless for the most part, and now that I am starting to feel good again, I guess I should get to it!

I guess there will be some updated pictures over the weekend of a set up changing table at least:)

In other news... here are some pics of Miss Katie's latest addiction. Special K with milk and a spoon! She is obsessed with eating cereal and will eat 3 or more bowls in the morning until we have to cut her off... It's kind of amusing and insanely messy!



Here is also a video of her using my Hi-pod... (or Katie's Hi-pod as she sometimes calls it) to search for Thomas Videos on You Tube.

Re-organizing our living room

Damn you Ikea. We had planned out a new set up for our living room only to realize that the color of the bookshelf we were planning the new set up around had been discontinued.

I even took a solo trip to Ikea to do a re-con mission to pick out doors and things for our bookshelves and to choose different options for Dave to go back later to make final selection and purchase.

So, we sat down at the computer and started looking all over again to try to figure out what kind of storage solution we were going to use for the new desk/play area.

Then Dave bravely went out to Ikea alone to make our purchase.

A crap load of money and lots of boxes later, Dave has assembled our new storage units and Poang chair for the living room. (I wasn't allowed to build anything... and if you know me, you know I love building Ikea stuff!!!)







I had been looking for the perfect solution for a desk as I felt my desk was super tiny and my computer is super big - so I wanted to be able to put more distance between myself and the monitor. With the shape and design of our entire apartment, we found out that no corner desks that Ikea made would work - so I was researching online and found someone who rigged a corner desk for their Mac - so I did the same thing and am crazy happy with it! I used a side table that we had next to the couch to put my monitor on and then put my existing desk in front of that. So I have the entire desk for all my stuff... It is currently set up with everything I typically use/do in a day. (including brother baby's home from the hospital Hat that I just finished and my coupon stash from todays' paper) And I can put the keyboard far enough on the desk that Katie can't touch it, which was also important to me.



We got 2 Expedit book cases - a 4*4 and a 2*4. What I really wanted was a 4*5 but of course, Ikea doesn't make one - so we had to split it this way. Dave also picked out these plastic bins for putting stuff in and at first we thought having 2 colors would be nice, but I don't like it... so I think I'm gonna stick with the clear. I also don't like that you can see through them because it looks messy, so I took some scrapping paper and put it in the front of the bins and now they look way better and hold a TON OF STUFF!!










Before and After Pictures of the play space turned office space.
Now, we have tons of organizing still to do but everything fits and I have to go buy some canvas totes to put in it because I think I might like the way that looks better. These things now hold the contents of a large 3 drawer sterilite unit (yarn) a small 3 drawer sterilite unit (katies cars/trucks/trains/play food) An entire 5 shelf bookshelf and some other stuff that we had in various places!! So, this nester is happy for now!




We also added a chair in the living room that I will hopefully be using for nursing once this soccer player in my belly gets here. We didn't have the heart to take Katie's chair out of her room because she likes it so much and we sit in it every night to read to her - so we got a Poang Chair from Ikea to add to the living room




We also cleaned out closets again and got rid of some old kitchen stuff and clothes and plain old crap that we have had in the house forever and have not used. It feels good.
Freecycle is my new best friend - you post the stuff you want to give away versus throw out and someone who needs it picks it up outside your house! We have donated dishes, mugs, and storage units and I'm sure I will find some of Katie's old clothes to give someone too.


Katie's participation for the day was helping to organize the baskets and then she took a break and sat on her Thomas Train and looked up Thomas videos on You tube on "my HI-POD" as she calls it... she's holding it here.

Next weekend we are going to go through our bedroom closets and up in the attic. We also want to take down the HIDEOUS and broken crappy vertical blinds in the bedroom and maybe the living room (cost dependent) and put up curtains. If we end up switching rooms with the kids, it's a MUST for our bedroom so we figure we might as well just do it now as we are leaning towards making the switch once little man comes home and is sleeping at least a little at night - so that we don't torture our friends downstairs with a crying newborn right above their heads. So, we are not finished, but we have done a lot of the heavy lifting so to speak. There is still TONS more money to spend and lots of other stuff to get to get ready - but we love our place now, so it's all worth it:)

Happy Sunday Night!

Katie's Birthday Party

We just had the best day ever! Dave took the day off and we transformed our apartment into party central. We separated all of Katie's toys so that there were some in every room and we set up a train table in our main play area. Katie was running around all morning screaming, "Friends come over, come over"

When her first guests arrived she laid down at the top of the stairs waiting for them she was so excited!!!!

We had a total of 7 kids and 7 adults and it was AWESOME. They played so well both together and separately. They split up between the rooms nicely and ate their pizza, cookies and cake and sang happy birthday and had a great time. I don't even think there was more than a 2 second argument over a toy. (perhaps because we have enough toys in this house to run a daycare:)) I'm bummed because one of the boys left before I took this picture of the whole gang.

I feel bad because there has been so much activity the past few weeks and now there won't be anything until Christmas time. It's making me start to think that we should celebrate half birthdays going forward sometime in the summer to help break up the parties/gifts, etc and to give her something to look forward to. So, now we have started telling her that her birthday is over and now we have other people's birthdays to celebrate.

We are in the process of re-organizing the entire apartment to hide toys better so that there isn't so much clutter around and so that she can focus a little better on one thing at a time. So we are buying storage units and bookshelves with doors to try to help with all that to help prepare for all of the stuff that comes along with having another child. While we re-organize, we will hide some toys so that we can rotate them on and off from time to time. Wish us luck. I'll post pictures once our re-design is done:)
XOXOXO

Katie's Birthday

Katie's family birthday party went VERY WELL this weekend!
We are so lucky to have such an amazing cast of characters who care so much about her.
I didn't get many pictures because the camera I bought doesn't take very good pictures - although I don't know if we are just so spoiled by our Nikon that anything else will look bad to us now.
But here are a few shots of our activity over the weekend.

Katie had a cold, is getting her 2 year molars and hasn't slept in a few days because of a cough that kept waking her up from sleeping - but she was in a GREAT mood all day Saturday and played with every one of her guests and had a great time.

Saturday, we took her to a childrens museum and this is my FAVORITE picture!!! Dave kept trying to get her to call one of the princesses on the phone and she kept messing it up - you can see his frustration - I love this man!
2.5 hours later - and her cake was decorated... she didn't seem that excited about it - so for her kiddie party we are just having cupcakes:)

She got some super amazing presents and we all had a great time visiting!


Katie even went outside with Daddy and Grampie to make a snowman for about 5 minutes before she decided she was over it! HAHAHA
Thank you everyone for coming to celebrate and for sending your birthday wishes! She got very excited every time she got a card in a mail and they are now hanging on our door:)
Happy Tuesday!

2 years old - where has the time gone?

Can you believe it? I surely can't. As we prep and plan for Katie's birthday weekend extravaganza and we talk to her about the different stuff we are going to do - I'm reminded of just how smart this little girl really is!

They say kids this age don't understand their birthday - or a theme party, or any of it. I'm telling you, my kid does. She knows her birthday is Saturday and that we are going to Mimi's house and that Grammie and Grampie and Grumps and Uncle Mike are all gonna be there. She knows we're having a birthday party and that Uncle Louie, Titi Millie and Uncle Ruben are gonna be there and she can tell you all her friends names who are coming to her kiddie party next week at our house and their moms names too!

She helped me pick out crafts for her party and her cake and she is fully aware of the entire thing.

I had no idea when we brought her home from what hospital what to really expect and I can say that she has more than surpassed anyone's expectations.


She loves Thomas the Train, blue and green seem to be her favorite colors along with pink and purple. She likes cars and trucks and just started an interest in dressing up. (check out my handy work above)

She talks to Ba ba like he's a real person and comforts him and tells him it's ok when I'm using the vacuum. She remembers things that I tell her we have to buy at the store, and reminds me while we are shopping. She is potty trained, she knows her ABC's sings tons of songs and has even started making up her own songs.
She is a pro with my HI-pod. (that's what she calls the ipod) She can follow a computer game and pick out letters on my keyboard. She shares her toys with all of her friends. (she is quite the socialite and had 4 playdates alone this week, not to mention Braydon's birthday party!!) She puts herself to sleep after a book. She pretends to cook in her kitchen and helps us make our real coffee in the morning. She knows which shirts Dave wears to work and which shirts are for home, and helps him pick out both.
She is a picky eater who won't eat cake or brownies but loves the Walnut ball cookies I made over the holidays and eats Oatmeal (any flavor) like there is no tomorrow.
She knows that we have to pay when we are buying something and helps me push the buttons on the electronic thingy. (as long as there isn't a huge line)
She has Thomas and toy story radar - we could be 4 aisles away from something and she will see it out of the corner of her eye and point it out.
She is a daddy's girl. She is a tom boy. She has been speaking in sentences for at least a few months now and is crazy advanced as far as speech goes. I don't even have to think twice about just talking to her like a normal person and we can even reason with her and negotiate certain things.
She is amazing and she is 2 and I can't believe it.
I can't wait to see her face tomorrow when she wakes up and sees the balloons Dave blew up for her on the living room floor and opens her new Leapster lap top that is programmed to say her name and play her favorite songs. I am sure she will have it figured out by the time we get to my moms house and will be able to show all her grandparents how to play every game on it.

Who knows what our next baby will bring? Certainly we don't have crazy expectations that he will follow in his sisters clearly NASA/future Apple CEO footsteps - and hopefully we will be able to NOT compare the two of them because I think she's a freak of nature sometimes.
I'll admit, it's going to be hard because life with Katie has been so easy. I'm sure that just means we're in for it with number 2 - but that's ok - we'll be ready and we'll have an amazing little helper to work with us and guide us through the hard times!

Happy Birthday Katie - you have brought us more wonder than I ever thought possible in the past 2 years and you have made us better people. and Lucky you did, cause you have given us the false sense that we are pretty good at this, so we decided to try it all over again so that you could have a friend and playmate for life.
Let's hope he's half as easy of a baby/toddler as you have been for the past 2 years and maybe we can negotiate another one for you!

Past Few Days

I've been a crafting machine... Ba Ba needed a sweater to match katie's blue hoodie - so I whipped one up over the weekend. Then I made Katie a matching earflap hat like mine... only she asked that hers not have ears on it.... Dave has yet to agree to wearing an ear flap hat... so I will spare him... for now!

we are rapidly getting ready for katie's birthday extravaganzas starting out with a fun day trip for just the 3.5 of us on Saturday and then a small family football/birthday party for her on Sunday afternoon. As she is particularly fond of electronics, she will be getting a computer that I had bought at a tag sale a long time ago and we have been saving for her as well as a "big kid" lap top toy. She has started to show some interest in dressing up too - so rumor has it she will be getting some play clothes too! We are excited and she is excited and can't stop talking about her friends who are going to come to her party (we are having a kiddie party next week ) and the fact that we are going to have a Ba Ba cake... yes, that's right - I'm making a Ba Ba cake... fingers crossed it actually looks like him:)

Gotta go to bed... little man is kicking me like crazy and making life very uncomfortable - which just reminds me that we are SO CLOSE TO THE END...

Making Space for baby!

Katie's room has gotten a face lift. We took the changing table out and put it in our room since the baby will be starting out there with us and we moved some other things around so she could have more toys in there. I have also started going through all the clothes I had saved that could be used by the baby and put it in his drawers in the changing table. We seem to have TONS of onesies in lots of different sizes, so we are set for those already.

He has some Pj's and long sleeve kimono shirts (katie lived in those) and once we know what size he actually will be (katie was SUPER small so didn't fit in 0 - 3 month stuff for awhile) then we'll know what else we need for the first few months.

We have all the blanket sleepers we used for Katie which is good because 3 of them were neutral so can be re-used. We have 2 of those swaddle me velcro burrito wrap em up thingies in yellow already too... Katie hated them so I don't have high hopes that he will like them - but am open to trying:)

We have lots of little receiving blankets already and some of her sheets and stuff were neutral as well. So... we have more stuff than I thought we did.

We don't want to buy a crib/mattress until we know if we are staying in this apartment or moving, especially since little man will be sleeping with us in our room for awhile. We haven't decided what do to about the glider. Katie LOVES it - because we still sit in it every day to read to her, so we don't really want to take it from her room but we don't think we need 2 gliders either... so we were thinking of getting a different chair for her room for reading and moving the glider into the living room or our bedroom.

We haven't even looked at double strollers yet... I suppose we should start researching that as we will probably need one... I just don't see a huge pressing need yet. We also need to research what kind of monitor we want for this one as we have thought it might be nice to get a video monitor for all those times we don't want to have to go in to check on him in case him seeing us makes the situation worse... like it used to with Katie...

Other than that, we haven't thought much about it. We moved the changing table. We bought a pack and play with a newborn napping station, etc... a long time ago for this purpose, so that's ready to set up. We saved the carseat from Katie and got a new cover for it so it wouldn't be Pink...

I'm sure there is tons more stuff I need to be doing and thinking about... I just haven't yet...
is that bad?

We have some little diapers but again, in case he doesn't fit in NB - I don't want to get too many yet...

Surely there is tons of stuff I should be doing no??? I had already set aside all the baby toys months ago, so that stuff will be ready to pull out when we need them and we have the swing and bouncers, etc.... I guess we're just waiting on him!

last doctors appointment said everything looks good. We have to make our appointment for a hospital tour soon and our neighbors will have to go on standby in March in case we have a crazy going into labor in the middle of the night situation and have to leave Katie with them until my parents can get here... but I think we're covered at the moment...

I'll let you know if I realize what HUGE thing I'm forgetting:)

Happy weekend!!!! We have a birthday party for a very special little boy and then we have to get ready for Miss Kaitlyn's 2nd birthday brunch and her kiddie party which will be later in the month. Wish us luck as I am getting more and more exhausted as the days go by - third trimester exhaustion has officially set in....